Courtesy of Porterhouse
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Mildly roasted coffee and cream aroma with even more mild milk chocolate notes and an assertive hop aroma. Dark brown to black with a diminishing thumb thick mocha head. Fore is quite hoppy and bitter with hearty, mildly sweet and nutty, malts in the middle. This gives it a bit of a brown ale flavor, but without the fruity sweetness. Nice level of roastiness to this and a perfect mouthfeel for a robust porter. The finish is a very cream, coffee and toffee cake affair and a nice contrast to the earlier flavor progressions. This is a pretty damn good porter.

(Bottle) Pours a sort of murkyish dark brown, kind of the color of old-fashioned cough syrup. About an inch of tan head. Aroma has very mild coffee, caramel and chocolate. Good lacing, weepy. Mouthfeel pretty smooth, soft. Taste is good, promising, just not quite enough of it - bitter but smooth coffee with a bit of chocolate in the finish. Overall pretty bitter. Slightly grassy taste in finish. Not too bad, although flavor a bit mild and body a touch thin.

Bottle. Poured a black that does let some light through. Nice little tan head. Smells like hops actually, hence the "west coast" feel they dub it with. I expected more hop flavor but the aroma was much more hop than the taste. In fact the taste was malt, coffee, and some toffee notes. However these flavors were all dummied down quite a bit as this beer is somewhat watered down. Seems like they got the balance right, they just made it a tad bit watery. I see Gearyís London Porter in the previous reviewís description and the only thing i can think is that this beer isnít even close to that class. A moderate effort at best, certainly not the 3.7 that itís got now.

Black body with thick light tan head. Faint smell hinting malt and maybe licorice. Strong coffee flavor, similar to Gearyís London Porter but a bit stronger. Hints of licorice or chicory too. Not the best porter Iíve had, but among the better ones... If you donít like coffee, donít try this one though...

Draught pint at Horshoe Pub with OldGrowth on 3/4/06Deep brown, near black-looking liquid is unfiltered with a slow-to-recede light tan head, that leaves little to no lacing in its wake. Thick and heavy looking in the glass, and the head being quite dense, it comes off quite ominous.The nose is rather muted at first, being served on draught, unfiltered, quite cold to start and in an English pint glass, with a thick head. So, ya, itís got a lot working against it. But as it breathes and warms, a dry, mildly lactic, dark chocolate and mild espresso note emerges, with some vanilla beans, crusty/bready brown malts and a touch of sweet raisins and caramel, just a hint really.The flavor is chocolatey and with light bits of fudginess, but mainly quite dry, with light roast notes. The cascades add a resilient amount of bitterness and green, juicy hop flavors, which when combined with the malts come off as rather floral. The unfiltered, chewy texture with the right amount of attenuation (dry, but not too dry), combined with a tasteful amount of hops really works well. Lactic, roast, chocolate, caramel, raisins. . .quite complex all told, and increasing with every sip as it warms. These guys can brew. No alcohol apparency.

Maine Brewers Festival 2005. Black body with a good sized khaki head. Mild roast with a bit of chocolate notes and very muted fruit. Flavour is fairly restrained served at cold temperature, mild riast and burnt chocolate undercurrents. Emerges a bit more as it warms. Average to medium palate. Deserving of a full pint if I get the chance again.

Pours a dark, dark brown with ruby highlights. Big creamy tan head. Lots of lace throughout the pint. Smell is roasted malt and lightly bitter.
Taste is full of flavors. Coffee flavors up front followed by bitter-sweet chocolate then smooths out at the finish. Smoky flavors and a decent hop finish. Very well balanced and pretty complex for a porter. Nice and tasty! These go down smooth even with all the flavor. one of the best porters Iíve ever had on draft.

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